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I few years ago I bought a 40W solar panel from Yahoo Auction Japan for my tiny prefab at work. For years I have been using generators to power up my tools and sometimes I even use a DC/AC converters hooked to my cars just to get some juice to power-up lights. One time I hooked my DC/AC converter to power-up my vacuum cleaner and the vac killed the car's ECU... HAHAHA!

I asked the power guy if he can hook electricity to my prefab and his price is just too much. The only thing that he has that I don't have is the license for hooking-up the power. I have been playing with 240V since I was 7, I climbed electric posts and towers, have played with high voltage and even got electrocuted several times and this guy said that I have to pay around 100,000 Yen. I refused and he offered me that if I do all the work (building the pole, installing the meter, hooking-up the wires to the power pole, and doing all the set-up by myself) and all he has to do is to make it legal, he'll give me a 10% discount... I refused and showed him my huge generator which is enough to run a welding machine.

This is the reason why I stay off-grid because I don't like some wise-ass telling me that I have to pay a lot for his services that I know that I can do myself...

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Since I don't spend long hours here, I decided to use 12 volts lamps. On the left is an ordinary 4WD 110 watt fog lamp. On the right is a 12 volts room lamp that came from my Toyota Hi-ace Van. The fog lamp drains the power quickly but the room lamp can survive until the next morning. I only use the big 100 volts lamp if I'm working on something small and complicated like meters and other small electronic devices. The batteries too can power up this 100 volts lamp but not for a long time so I use my engine powered generator to power it up and not the batteries.

photo taken on a cloudy day, notice the voltage reading... not bad ey!!!

Another cheap upgrade... 12 volts car CD/radio player and funky speakers. I salvaged two speakers from a Mercedes Benz and placed them inside a normal carton box, then I wrapped the box with aluminum tape for looks... It still looks ugly but it does produce quality sounds and the kids loved it.